Anxiety disoder or something else?

Hi everyone,

I posted this in the MS and chronic pain forum as well, but since these symptoms are always accompanied by severe anxiety, I am wondering if that is the root cause. Someone suggested that all of these neurological symptoms can be caused by anxiety, so I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar.

I am a 25 yr old female and would really appreciate any advice anyone has to share.

Three years ago I had a bout of strange symptoms that lasted 4 months and then disappeared: electric shock like pains all over my body, muscle spasms (like my right hip locking up so that I would walk with a peg leg), vertigo, urinary problems, occasional slurred speech, forgetting common words, and a tendency to fall down stairs, run into things, drop small objects, and I even noticed that the vitamin supplements, which I had taken my whole life, I was suddenly having trouble swallowing. I was also having a lot of fatigue, which would sometimes come on very suddenly, with a lot of dizziness. All of these things that seemed so obvious and scary to me, were hardly observable by anyone else. My family and friends were relatively dismissive of all these problems and made me feel like I was being a hypochondriac. My GP is the one who suspected MS and ordered an MRI, which showed nothing. I was examined by two different neurologists, who after looking at the MRI results were convinced it wasn't MS. I was tested for Lyme, which was negative. The symptoms eventually went away on their own once the spring rolled around. Every fall/winter however, the stabbing, electric shock pains come back, without any of the other symptoms. This year I began to get the pains as usual, but also had a recent episode - I guess it was a muscle spasm? - in which both my wrists locked in bent position and I couldn't move them. This lasted only about 5 minutes, but was very scary. I had no wrist pain or problems previously or since then. I don't have carpel tunnel or anything like that.

I am very frustrated by all this, and just want to get some answers! I know MS is different for everyone, and I also know that it's difficult to diagnose early on and a neg MRI don't necessarily rule out MS. So I'm a little irritated with these doctors for telling me that I absolutely don't have MS. One neurologist, who I waited 3 months to see actually told me I was just depressed and it was all in my head, and suggested Prozac. I feel so dismissed and angry. Please help!!

I don't have any answers for you, but I just wanted to say that some of your symptoms do not sound at all like anxiety to me. You can get aches and pains, dizziness, touble swallowing, etc, but I've never experienced or read of someone frequently falling because of anxiety or wrists locking up. I hope that you get to the bottom of it soon! You must be very frustrated.

Cait88

Another thing you might want to try is to visit the Lyme forum. It is very difficult to get an accurate diagnosis, but many of your symptoms, actually I think all of them, could be a result of Lyme and co-infections. I can tell you it is a common story for those of us with Lyme to spend years sometimes getting different tests, seeing all kinds of specialists, to no avail until finally WE figure out we might have Lyme and ask for the right test, from the right lab, with a Lyme-Literate medical doctor reading the results. Good luck to you; I know how difficult it is to have symptoms without a diagnosis.

Rose

Hi I'm not quite sure how to respond since I'm not all that experienced but I do want to say Good Luck with everything that's going on! I'll pray for your health!

:D